Challenges for policy and practice for young children’s community building

The impact of histories of colonisation has relevance for many countries, and there is a growing interest in the need to provide alternatives to predominately individualistic approaches in both education and citizenship. From listening deeply to young children’s community building in communities built on collectivist ontologies we propose challenges to the assumption of western superiority, to the injustices of racism and intergenerational trauma, to individualism, to policies, pedagogy and to conceptualisations and practices of citizenship. We invite readers to consider such challenges, and suggest that to build foundations for citizenship with young children, educators build and sustain relationships with Indigenous communities to incorporate Indigenous worldviews and local ecological knowledges to offer hope to rehabilitate the planet from anthropogenic devastation.